I will be honest, these cupcakes came about by accident. My intention was a honey-almond cupcake, but I had this newly discovered sweet potato flour and wanted to try it. As soon as I added the flour to the batter I knew I had something else on my hands. Quite anxious, I pushed forward with the recipe, all along feeling a cupcake disaster was sure to ensue. Thankfully I was altogether wrong. The cupcakes turned out utterly delicious. I was surprise by their texture – quite billowy and soft, but also with a toothsome texture from the almond meal. And the sweet potato flavor was there, but subtle allowing the honey and almond to shine through as well.

The frosting? What can I say – this is my current absolute favorite frosting. It’s just a notch above it’s cousin, the salted caramel frosting recipe, that is my go-to frosting for just about anything. But bourbon has it’s adult appeal and it’s my top-pick for adult events.

You may start noticing a trend with this and future recipes… gluten-free. We have discovered that our daughter is wheat or gluten sensitive (we haven’t narrowed it down, but are basically cutting out gluten all around). This recipe is naturally gluten-free, but if you wanted to transform it into a straight up honey-almond cupcake and don’t mind gluten, just swap the sweet potato flour for all-purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add almond meal and beat to combine.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.
5. Measure the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
6. Measure out the honey and buttermilk. Stir to combine.
7. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the wet ingredients and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
8. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

1. Heat brown sugar, cream, butter, salt over medium high heat whisking until sugar is dissolved. Cook for another minute.
2. Pour in bourbon and stir to combine. Take off heat and let cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until soft.
4. Add the confectioner’s sugar and beat to combine.
5. Add three tablespoons of the bourbon caramel (you might have some left over) and beat to combine. You can always add more, but the frosting may end up pretty soft.

Wow, these look fantastic. I think I may have to give sweet potato flour a try. And personally–selfishly ;)–I love that you’re moving in a gluten-free direction. With your creativity, I’m sure you’re enjoying the opportunity for experimentation that the vast array of GF flours provides. Looking forward to more recipes and hope your daughter is feeling better gluten-free!

I never knew there was such a thing as sweet potato flour, but of course there is so much to know and not yet know about in the food world! I’ll have to keep my eye out for it because these cupcakes sound awesome… and baking with bourbon is a deal-maker in my opinion!

These look and sound delicious. We’ve just discovered that our son has celiac disease, so these would be great. I do have another son, however, who has a nut allergy. Do you have a suggestion for replacing the almond meal?

I’ve got a bag of sweetpotato flour in the cupboard I haven’t gotten around to using yet, I think these are the perfect excuse to break it out!
I hope you have an easy transistion to gluten free, it just takes a bit of getting your head around. I’m gluten and lactose intolerant, but still manage to be a professional chef, and enjoy most yummy things. I wish you well and good luck.

These look awesome! If you’re looking for a great gluten free cake flour, I stumbled on http://www.betterbatter.org, and their GF flour is AWESOME for cakes. We use it cup for cup(well, ounce for ounce, because we weigh) in our recipes. It’s an AWESOME alternative. I really can’t stress how well stuff turns out – we’ve had several compliments since we switched – and sometimes can’t even tell the difference!!

My taste buds recently met a sweet potato that wasn’t served next to a turkey, smothered with marshmallows- and it was delicious! I’ve been on the hunt for more recipes involving sweet potato and this one is just what I was looking for!

These look amazing- what tips do you have for getting your cupcakes so professional looking? I recently tried a recipe from ‘What’s New Cupcake?’ (admittedly a rather tricky duck cupcake) and the results were rather comical.

Also, dis you find the cakes sweet enough. I recently tried a sweet potato pie someone had made and it was a bit weird as pudding as it was so stodgy and savoury… x

I have never even used or knew that sweet potato flour existed as I am not much of a baker and I think doing the gluten free thing is great because so many people have allergies to flour and gluten. To tell the truth, could you give me a clue where it is that you get sweet potato flour. I make sweet potato gnocchi, but I have to use sweet potatoes and I think the flour would save me some time. If I can find some of this flour I might try this recipe, my mom loves cupcakes

Hi!! I’m Paula, I’m from Argentina! I Love your blog,I Like to try with diferent flavors too, unfortunately in my country doesn’t exist some of the products that you use in your recipes.
I hope you will be back soon to share more cupcakes recipes!

I <3 your website/ blog!!! I love all the different flavors you try. Last night I attempted the strawberry ganache filled cupcake with ganache and buttercream icing… about 60% FAIL! Buttercream hates me… in any event, I cannot find a decent piping bag and was wondering what do you use? I recently bought one in IKEA (i know!) it was good, but, it was a thin fabric and my hands were so OILY!!! It was far superior to the plastic. Yours looks like a canvas like material.. can you recommend?
Thanks for posting, your recipes and your reply :-)
Alya

Oh wow! I haven’t been here in a long while, so have been catching up on all the cupcake goodness…and these sweet potato cupcakes sound and LOOK amazing! I will have to find some of that sweet potato flour around here…